The MC News Repository [Oct. ’17]

Getting to this a bit late as the annual jaunt to Iceland bugged up the end of October going into November. We’ll be back on schedule – hopefully – come the end of this month. But who knows!

Between the horrific shooting in Las Vegas and the death of Tom Petty, it hasn’t been a pleasant several weeks for music. Moving forward though, I managed to nail down some record reviews, reasons why Judas Priest should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame among other things.

There’s a lot to get to after the jump…let’s get started.

The mass murder in Vegas during a country concert showed that nowhere is safe, a truly sad realization for music. Here’s a piece I did over at The Daily Times on the subject.

Less than 24 hours later, news broke that Tom Petty was on life support or dead after going into cardiac arrest. Despite the murky details at first, he never regained consciousness and we honored him with a tribute at Vanyaland.

Marilyn Manson’s new album, Heaven Upside Down, was finally released, and it’s really, really good. I reviewed it for Loudwire. Later in the month, for Diffuser, I ranked his entire catalog.

Nirvana’s long bootlegged track “You Know You’re Right” came out 15 years ago, and I looked at the story behind the battle in getting it out. The Goth-icons Bauhaus switched up their sound a bit 35 years ago on The Sky’s Gone Out, and I delved into that. Arguably the highlight of The Donnas’ catalog is Spend the Night, which turned 15. And the Afghan Whigs soul covers EP Uptown Avondale said goodbye to Sub Pop 25 years ago. All of the above were for Diffuser.

Over at Ultimate Classic Rock, I came up with five reasons why first-time nominees Judas Priest should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. and for The Daily Times, I laid out the odds of induction for all of this year’s nominees. Back at UCR, I marked the 40th anniversary of the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash with a look at what happened to the survivors in the aftermath. Before his death, was Bon Scott planning on leaving AC/DC? That’s one of the allegations in Jesse Fink’s explosive new book on the frontman, The Last Highway, from which we did an exclusive excerpt at UCR.

Finally, with all of the sexual harassment charges coming out of Hollywood, I noted in a piece for The Daily Times that it’s not just the film industry, but people in the music world are coming out as well with allegations.

Check back next month for even more madness, right in this very spot.